Sculptural Book
EXHIBITIONISTA: PULP: BOOK & PAPER ARTS
I am thrilled to participate for the second time in:
PULP: Book & Paper Arts
Book Arts: Handmade artist’s books or book art objects, showing excellence in bookmaking or altered book techniques, including books made of any medium (not just paper), as well as the art & craft of letterpress printing, bookbinding, book art sculptures, etc.
Paper Arts: including innovative or traditional explorations of paper sculpture, papermaking, etc.
The Sebastopol Center for the Arts is one of the most vibrant arts organizations in Northern, California. Since 1988 it has engaged and inspired the community through presentations of contemporary art, music, dance, film, and literary events. Through classes and workshops it strives to educate and deepen the interest in the arts for adults, teens and children. The Center is located in a 17,800 square foot building in downtown Sebastopol where it offers a large variety of arts programs and is a creative force in California. Sebastopol, located 60 miles north of San Francisco, is one of America’s premier destinations for food, wine, and the arts, attracting thousands of visitors each year.
Juror: Donna Seager of Seager Gray Gallery:
A native of New Orleans, Donna Seager’s background is in Art History. She received her
education at the University of Texas. She began in the art business in 1978, working in galleries
in New Orleans and was the director of a gallery in Boston before moving to California in 1989.
She continued to work in galleries in the Bay Area until 2005 when she opened Donna Seager Gallery. In 2011, she partnered with Suzanne Gray to form Seager Gray Gallery and moved the
gallery to Mill Valley where they are a cornerstone of the Marin arts community. Seager has distinguished herself for her discerning eye and commitment to the arts in her area. She has given lectures on the art of the book at international fairs in Miami and San Francisco and curated an exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library entitled “Ten Years of Artists’ Books” and “This is Not a Book, Chapter 2” for the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. She has served on the board of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association and The San Francisco Center for the Book.
(not so) WHITE WEDDING
Studio spotlight on:
WHITE WEDDING
2023
15 x 21.5 x 10.75″,
materials: book board, canvas, muslin, watercolor paper, hemp cord, string, linen thread
What does the term “white wedding” mean to YOU?
Sharing Shows: Arizona, California, Texas
Excavation of the Interior, 2021, 12 x 28 x 12.5″ (wood, mulberry paper, hemp cord, canvas, muslin)
Chromatic Interactions: The Golden Thread, 2020, 76 x 90 x 1.5″, mixed media installation utilizing file cards written and drawn upon by Craft Contemporary Museum patrons participating in my commissioned interactive artists’ book project: Chromatic Interactions, (File cards, gold thread, pencil and crayon)
Rent Wound Tear, Mend Heal Repair, 2022, 64 x 68″ (dimensions variable), Triptych Installation, (canvas, acrylic paint, hemp cord, lace, string)
CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: The Visitors
On June 25th, 2022 I held an open studio to share works created for my 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Project Fellowship:
Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Invention of New Forms of Visual Art in Response to the Holocaust
Employing research, artistic production, public engagement, the project investigates, compares and links the lives and the groundbreaking work of Jewish women artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse on the basis of their shared experience of trauma and loss through the Jewish Holocaust, the remarkably similar intimate traumas of their families (both lost their mothers to suicide), their invention of new forms of visual art through which I posit they respond to and attempt to cope with these traumas, their early deaths, and the emotional involvement of each with a charismatic and powerful male artist who proved to be influential, even pivotal in the development of their work and artistic/creative breakthroughs.
Themes of the project include being a woman artist, being a Jewish women artist, being an artist during or affected by a profoundly turbulent time in history, the relationship between internal and external turbulence and the creative act and the transformative power of the creative process: the triumph of the imagination as opposed to the triumph of the will.
On a broader scale, the project examines, through these two geniuses, ways in which the creative process can transform traumatic pasts, and how trauma can elicit the creation of new forms, voices and materials that outlast their makers and continue to reverberate throughout the ages, inspiring posterity.
As part of my Fellowship project commitment, I created a series of works responding to these artists: their oeuvre, their lives, their concurrencies. I was thrilled to welcome friends, colleagues and students to share the works and say hello! (All images by Steve Hankins Photography)
Thank you all, and thank you Steve Hankins, for your beautiful photography and capturing of the event.
CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: The Works
On June 25th, 2022 I held an open studio to share works created for my 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Project Fellowship:
Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Invention of New Forms of Visual Art in Response to the Holocaust
Employing research, artistic production, public engagement, the project investigates, compares and links the lives and the groundbreaking work of Jewish women artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse on the basis of their shared experience of trauma and loss through the Jewish Holocaust, the remarkably similar intimate traumas of their families (both lost their mothers to suicide), their invention of new forms of visual art through which I posit they respond to and attempt to cope with these traumas, their early deaths, and the emotional involvement of each with a charismatic and powerful male artist who proved to be influential, even pivotal in the development of their work and artistic/creative breakthroughs.
Themes of the project include being a woman artist, being a Jewish women artist, being an artist during or affected by a profoundly turbulent time in history, the relationship between internal and external turbulence and the creative act and the transformative power of the creative process: the triumph of the imagination as opposed to the triumph of the will.
On a broader scale, the project examines, through these two geniuses, ways in which the creative process can transform traumatic pasts, and how trauma can elicit the creation of new forms, voices and materials that outlast their makers and continue to reverberate throughout the ages, inspiring posterity.
As part of my Fellowship project commitment, I created a series of works responding to these artists: their oeuvre, their lives, their concurrencies, some of which I share here: (All images by Steve Hankins Photography)
Working title: “Concurrencies I“, 2022, repurposed denim, linen thread, gold thread, hemp cord, varnish
Working title: “Concurrencies II“, begun, 2022 (unfinished), repurposed denim, linen thread, gold thread, varnish , to be developed
Working title, “Finally“, 2022, canvas, burlap, acrylic paint, hemp cord
Working title, “Finally“, 2022, canvas, burlap, acrylic paint, hemp cord, (details)
“I Can’t I Won’t I will I Do“, 2022, repurposed cotton table runner, hemp cord, acrylic paint
“It’s Not Black and White“, 2021, Bookboard, mulberry paper, repurposed typewriter tape, canvas, hemp cord, (exterior)
“It’s Not Black and White“, 2021, Bookboard, mulberry paper, repurposed typewriter tape, canvas, hemp cord, (exterior/interior)
“Forest Through The Trees“, 2021, bookboard, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood, canvas, repurposed typewriter tape, lace, (exterior)
“Forest Through The Trees“, 2021, bookboard, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood, canvas, repurposed typewriter tape, lace, (detail)
Working title: “Charlotte Salomon-Eva Hesse: Concurrencies“, 2022, repurposed family album, burlap, linen thread, collage/paper, (exterior)